We were saved by the Bible

We have now been traveling for almost three months and as you may have guessed we have ran out of discussion topics. So one evening before going to bed we noticed our bungalow had a Bible and we ended up having a very interesting discussion about it. :) So please feel free to suggest any new discussion topics for us! :)

We spent the last two weeks in the Philippines and most of our time was spent on the beach :) After 20 hours of travelling we landed in Cebu airport and catched a local bus directly to the city of Dumaguete where we spent two nights. We went on a day trip to a nearby Apo island which is world famous for diving and snorkeling. We decided to go snorkeling there and this one Philipino guy wanted to be our private snorkeling guide. We saw many Nemo fish and other colourful sea creatures there. Our guide took us also to another snorkeling spot where we snorkeled with giant turtles. We kind of felt sorry for them cos we just kept following them around while they were trying to eat. Hopefully they didn't get too stressed out :)

Dried fish sold in a market, the smell was unbelievable!



Apo island



After Dumaguete we decided to go to Siquijor island. The island was kind of small  and quiet and we didn't see many other tourists there. We mainly just relaxed on the beach or by the pool there. The second day we went for an island tour with a local guy who had a pink tricycle :) He took us around the whole island with his cute tricycle to see waterfalls and beaches. We even got to swim under the waterfalls.

Siquijor island

Waiting for the sunset on Siquijor

We went kayaking in the morning



Waterfalls

400 year old tree

Our cute tricycle



Lili swimming in Cambugahay waterfalls

Our next destination was Panglao Island on Bohol. It was the nicest place of all the places we visited in the Philippines. We didn't really activate ourselves there, we just concentrated on getting a good tan and enjoyed the white beaches. :) On Panglao we made friends with a Philipino guy called Van-Van. He wanted to have happy happy time with us, and by happy happy time he meant drinking one gallon of homemade coconut wine, but we kindly refused his offer cos we unfortunately had to wake up really early the next morning. So no happy happy time for us and Van-Van this time. :)




Alona beach in Panglao island

Alona beach



Our last stop was Malapascua island which is also supposed to be good for snorkeling and diving. A lot of tourists come to the island to dive with thresher sharks. We don't really dive so we went snorkeling instead. The snorkeling was much better on Apo island and we didn't even get to see any sharks here even though our guide said it could be possible to see them. :) So because the snorkeling was kind of a disappointment, Lili decided to jump off a 15-meter high cliff. It took almost thirty minutes for her to gain the courage to jump and it really hurt when she hit the water. Even her flipflop broke from the impact but it was worth it!




View from our balcony on Malapascua island



Contemplating whether to jump or not



Lili hitting the water

  

We had time to kill before our flight so we decided to take a taxi to a shopping mall. To enter the shopping mall we had to go through security check and a metal detector. The security guys pulled us aside to wait for the sniffer dog to arrive and go through our bags for drugs. This was not the first time we were suspected as having something to do with drugs. At the airport in Ecuador this police asked us where we went in Ecuador and when we answered Montanita he assumed we had been smoking marijuana! We just started laughing and luckily he believed us. Also when we arrived to the Philippines and said we are from Finland we were right away offered marijuana (apparently our tricycle driver had had finnish customers who smoke a lot of pot). The shopping wasn't that good cos the stores only sold winter clothes which we don't really get as it's way too hot to wear anything other that t-shirts on the Philippines. That's when we saw a hairsalon and Lili decided to cut off her super dry hair and it only cost her 1,70 euros!